Favourite band ....
Foture plans . .to become o weil nown
_ actor and work with sick people

Soccer fields studied

Marcie Good

Contributing Write.

NORTE: Shore soccer fields are in such poor con-
dition that teams from other cities refuse to play on
tiem, Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn said at North
Vancouver district council meeting Monday night.

Of the distzict’s 25 playing fields, four are built with all-weath-
er gravel and 21 are grass.
>. Urging council to look: at building an artificial turf field,
* MacKay-Dunn explained that local soccer teams are now forced to
play “home gemes” in other cities, scmetimes as far away 4s
Mission. :
Council, with the exception of Coun, Ernie Crist, agreed to ask
district staff ta look at the possibility of developing an artificial
_playing field and report back within 45 days. Staff will consult with
- a task force of the North Vancouver Rec Commission, which is
currently. looking at field use and allocation between North
Vancouver City and the district.

“The report will look at issues such as location, lighting,
drainage, costs, utilization, neighbourhood impact, traffic and
parking, and pofential for cost recovery.

MacKay-Dunn pointed out that in the past, the district has
wied.to rebuild one field every year. Due to budget limitations,
this has not happened for the past two years. A turf field, he said,
has pine ama to allow 10 times more use thin all-weather or

ait said that although } he would support an artificial turf field
in the district, he would like a thorough study of shared facilities
between the city and the district.

mews of the werd

ie Ssweei smeéi

IN| August, an industrial tri-
bunal in England upheld the
firing of reporter Ian White,
26, who had been warned sev-
eral tintes over the years about
his bad hygiene, which he
blamed on depression over his
marriage. It was Britain’s first
uch official decision after sev-
eral that seemed to suggest
that workmates had to coler-
ate diverse body odours.

900

Fireproof Workers: An
abitration panel riled in July
that Toronio Transit
Coninission janitor Winston
Ruhle had been improperly
fired and deserved about
$115,000 US in damages; he
was fired in 1995 for padding
bis recuperation time after
surgery, improperly missing
203 days during a 244-day
period.

And English) chautteur
John Forbes, 55, won an
employment tribunal ruling in
September that it was anfair
to fire bin simply because he
had twice dressed in women’s
clothing on the job and
tlashed his underwear to pass-
ing motorists.

909

In a September profile of a
purgatory-like = room at
Tokyo's Sega Enterprises
building, The Wall Street
Journal described the daily
activities of — disfavoured
emplovee ‘Toshiyuki Sakai
during the four months
between his first negative eval-
vation and his ultimate firing,
Sakai was assigned to an
empty room with a desk, chair
and incoming-calls-only tele-
phone, where he was expected
te remain every day, with no

Friday, January 28, 2000 ~ Nerth Shore Mews - 11

assignments yet also without
personal diversions. Observers
cited by the Journal called
Sega’s room a compromise
between the US. preference
for ruthless termination and
the Japanese commitment to
stick with workers longer.

oQo00a

Kids Growing Up Fast:
Three times during the Jast
two months of 1999, a parent
passed away unexpectedly,
leaving a small child alone in
the house to figure out what
to do next,

Travis Butler, 9, Memphis,
‘Tenn., went to school as nor-
mal for a month, trying to
hide his mother’s body
because he feared being putin
a foster home.

Lydia Wanson, 7, Peabody,
Mass., told her teacher the
next day of her mother’s

City and Seven Seas set for court

Bob Mackin

News Reporter
bmackin@nsnews.com

THE Seven Scas saga is
slowly sailing to trial.

Lawyers for the City of
North Vancouver and Seven
Seas’ owner Diamond Almas
held a pre-trial conference in
late November and are expect-
ed to wrap-up the examination
for discovery by the end of
March. A trial is set for five days
in October ar federal court in
Vancouver.

The city faunched the
action in March 1999, sceking
the Seven Seas’ removal from
the waterfront. City council
claimed the former No, 5 ferry
was a safety hazard.

“We have one view, the city
has another. It’s up to the court
to decide.” said Almas’ lawyer
Joe Spears. “They haven't
made steps to remove (the
ship), so maybe they're consid-
ering their options.”

Almas bought the old No. 5
ferry for $155,000 in 1959
after it was decommissioned
from its Burrard Inlet run.
Spears said a condition of the

sale was that it remain moored
at the foot of Lonsdale.

“It’s a heritage structure,”
Spears said. “If it was on land
you couldn’t tear it down.”

He said the vessel has been
reinforced by a protective lin-
ing and is aot in danger of sink-
ing or causing harm to neigh-
bouring vessels.

“The vessel is insured and
there it sits,” Spears said. “I'd
like to see it there another 25
years.”

Spears said the city’s juris-
diction ends at the waterfront.
The water in which the ship
floats is a federal government
jurisdiction. The city, he said,
can only contro] access to the
Seven Seas from land.

North Vancouver — City
Mayor Barbara Sharp said the
city is allowing the legal process
to unfold.

“I can’t tell you that we're
doing anything more than wait
‘til we see what happens in
court,” Sharp said. “I believe
we have a case. We're not try-
ing to get rid of the restaurant
or the ship because we don’t
tike it, we're just wying to do it
because we think itis, from our
sources, unsafe.”

Pedestrian hit by car

AN 85-year-old driver is facing charges after a
pedestrian was hit on Friday on Keith Road at

Lonsdale Avenue.

According to the North Vancouver RCMP, the motorist was
travelling south on Lonsdaie Avenue, turning left onto Keith
Road when the pedestrian was hit at 7:30 a.m.

The pedestrian, a 50-year-old woman, sustained bruises. She
was taken to hospital. Police say she was in the middle of the
street, either in or near a crosswalk, when she was struck. No

names were released.

—Anna Marie D’Angelo

Almas did not return phone
calls from the News. The Seven
Seas’ answering service opera-
tor said Tuesday morning the
restaurant remains open, but
only Fridays through Sundays.
‘That may explain why the land-
mark neon sign atop the wheel-
house of the whitewashed for-
mer ferry is out.

of success

death, but the teacher just
shrugged, forcing the girl to
spend another night caning for
the body before finding a
grown-up to believe her.

Karina Pistorie, 4,
Oklahoma City, attempted to
nurse her dead father through
the Chrisunas weekend before
the police came, having been
called by her father’s friends
concerned that he was miss-
ing. (No foul play is suspected
in any of the deaths.)

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